Airplane

It was a reality show all its own. Last Thursday, 30-year-old Elan Gale, a hirsute hipster and television producer whose credits include several seasons of "The Bachelor" franchise, sent a series of tweets to his roughly 35,000 Twitter followers. Explaining that he was on a delayed flight trying to make it home for Thanksgiving dinner, he described the shockingly rude antics of a fellow passenger named Diane. Over a four-hour period, Gale tweeted a blow-by-blow of a feud that apparently played out through an exchange of handwritten notes, which Gale snapped photos of and posted on his Twitter feed.

A new Kickstarter project called PowerUp 3.0 turns paper airplanes into smartphone-controlled flying machines. PowerUp 3.0 is a small electronic module that works by attaching onto a paper airplane that users fold themselves. A small box at the front of the module stores the gadget's battery and also keeps in contact with users' smartphones. Meanwhile, at the back of the toy there is a propeller and rudder that make the device go in whatever direction a user wants. "PowerUp 3.0 turns your embarrassing paper plane into a lean, mean flying machine," says a video for the project, claims to be the world's first ever smartphone controlled paper airplane.

Re "Ban on in-flight calls may be lifted," Business, Nov. 22 Not only do I have to hear wailing babies, but now I may have to hear inane conversations from my seatmates as I am held prisoner in an airplane. Really? I don't think flight attendants have time to referee arguments between passengers who want peace and quiet and passengers who want to talk about Aunt Maisie's bunions. I will try to be patient, but that might just tip me over the edge. Jo Ann Michetti Rancho Palos Verdes If cellphone usage is allowed in-flight on airplanes, in the next presidential election I'll vote for whichever candidate runs on the "no cellphone usage in-flight" plank.

To see "The Wind Rises" is to simultaneously marvel at the work of a master and regret that this film is likely his last. Japan's Hayao Miyazaki, perhaps the world's preeminent animator, beloved for "My Neighbor Totoro" and an Oscar winner for "Spirited Away," has announced his retirement. If he holds to that, it's fitting that this final film, inspired by but not limited to the life of brilliant aircraft designer Jiro Horikoshi, is quintessentially his: stunningly beautiful and completely idiosyncratic.

What kinds of carry-on items don't get carried off airplanes? A wedding dress, bag of diamonds, prosthetic leg, glass eye, underwear and handcuffs, for starters. Crew members from 83 countries surveyed by online travel booking site Skyscanner reported finding different animals -- a parrot, frog, falcon, tortoise -- as well as random items such as a box of dried fish, a wig and a toupee, even a written marriage proposal. Of course, more mundane things get left behind too. Of the 700 cabin crew members surveyed, 24% said they found passports, 23% found cellphones and 21% found books.

If you bought your car in the last few years, chances are it's equipped with a device that records such data as how fast you are driving and whether you're wearing your seat belt. Chances are you don't know it's there. Black boxes aren't just for airplanes anymore. They were first installed by automakers as a way to analyze the performance of their cars if that became necessary, but it didn't take long for crash investigators to see them as a source of information about what led to an accident.

Six passengers from Asiana Airlines Flight 214 remained in critical condition Tuesday at two Bay Area hospitals, officials said. San Francisco General Hospital said a child listed in critical condition was upgraded to serious Monday. The five patients that remain in critical condition include four adults and one child. One patient was previously thought to be an adult but later determined to be a minor, officials said. Five patients were discharged Monday, officials said. In all, 12 patients remain at the hospital - nine adults and three children - ranging from serious to good condition.

SAN FRANCISCO - The head of Asiana Airlines apologized Sunday for the weekend plane crash that killed two teenage passengers. "I sincerely apologize over the accident, and to the passengers on board and their families," Yoon Young-doo, Asiana's president, told reporters at a televised news conference in Seoul. He described the pilots involved as "skilled" and said it could take time to determine what went wrong. Seoul-based Yonhap News Agency said the two victims were born in 1996 and 1997 and were from China.

Barbara Vucanovich Nevada's first congresswoman Barbara Vucanovich, 91, who was the first woman to represent Nevada in Congress and went on to serve a sprawling, rural congressional district for 14 years, died Monday at an assisted living complex in Reno after breaking her pelvis in February and never fully recovering, her daughter Patty Cafferata said. Vucanovich, a conservative Republican, was elected to the House of Representatives in 1982 and served from 1983 to 1997.